When it comes to Apple's product portfolio, the iMac range
often doesn't get the same kind of attention as popular "it" products
like the iPhone 4, iPad, or MacBook
Air. However, Apple still relies quite heavily on its iMac family and today announced a top to bottom refresh
complete with new Sandy Bridge processors
and Thunderbolt I/O technology.

First off, all members of the iMac family now feature
Intel's latest quad-core processors, with the low-end models getting the Core
i5. Core i7 processors are a standalone option for the 21.5" and 27"
iMacs.

Apple loves to play the numbers game whenever it refreshes
its product lines, and the latest iMacs are no exception. The company says that
the new iMacs are up to 70 percent faster in overall performance and that
graphics performance is up to three times faster than before.

The other big addition to the iMac family is the Thunderbolt
I/O technology that was first introduced on refreshed
MacBook Pros earlier this year. Thunderbolt provides two bi-directional
data channels and transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps. Apple's 21.5" iMacs
feature one Thunderbolt port while the 27" iMacs get two ports.